ℹ️ Please note this research is from 2016 when Opera has first added their browser "VPN", even before the "Chinese deal" was closed. They have since introduced some real VPN apps but this below is not about them.
🕵️ Some folks also like to use this article to show a proof that the Opera browser is a spyware or that Opera sells all your data to 3rd parties or something like that. This article here doesn't say anything like that.
When setting up (that's immediately when user enables it in settings) Opera VPN sends few API requests to https://api.surfeasy.com to obtain credentials and proxy IPs, see below, also see The Oprah Proxy.
The browser then talks to a proxy de0.opera-proxy.net (when VPN location is set to Germany), it's IP address can only be resolved from within Opera when VPN is on, it's 185.108.219.42 (or similar, see below). It's an HTTP/S proxy which requires auth.
When loading a page with Opera VPN enabled, the browser sends a lot of requests to de0.opera-proxy.net with Proxy-Authorization request header.
The Proxy-Authorization header decoded: CC68FE24C34B5B2414FB1DC116342EADA7D5C46B:9B9BE3FAE674A33D1820315F4CC94372926C8210B6AEC0B662EC7CAD611D86A3
(that's sha1(device_id):device_password, where device_id and device_password come from the POST /v2/register_device API call, please note that this decoded header is from another Opera installation and thus contains different device_id and device_password than what is shown below)
These creds can be used with the de0.opera-proxy.net even when connecting from a different machine, it's just an HTTP proxy anyway.
When you use the proxy on a different machine (with no Opera installed), you'll get the same IP as when using Opera's VPN, of course.
This Opera "VPN" is just a preconfigured HTTP/S proxy protecting just the traffic between Opera and the proxy, nothing else. It's not a VPN.
They even call it Secure proxy (besides calling it VPN, sure) in Opera settings.
The API calls are:
- https://api.surfeasy.com/v2/register_subscriber
- https://api.surfeasy.com/v2/register_device
- https://api.surfeasy.com/v2/geo_list
- https://api.surfeasy.com/v2/discover
I have automated the API calls and have built The Oprah Proxy, a simple Python script which will fetch the credentials for you. It will also list available locations and proxies.
I have been using Opera's secure proxy server since they introduced it. It is a bit flaky. Sometimes I have to restart Opera to get it to connect, but have been very pleased with it overall. I never expected it to be anything more than what it is—a secure proxy server connection for the browser. But now, I'm experiencing a different issue that is very disturbing. I can connect to Opera's server fine, and running diagnostics shows that the connection to the internet and the ISP is fine. However, any time I have the proxy service enabled, I get a "No Internet" page. Pages that I have open, such as webmail, say they aren't connecting. I'm hoping this is just a temporary glitch with Opera's server, but I suspect it's something much more troubling. I think the ISP is blocking secure proxy servers. I'm going to do some experimenting, but Im wondering if anyone else has started seeing this same issue. It was working fine as of this morning. My carrier is Xfinity/Comcast.
If what I suspect is true, the battle for a secure and private internet has just escalated to a whole new level! Can anyone help me find out if this is just me, Opera, or an ISP issue?